Malign Sorcery Endless Spells Reviewed for Competitive Play

So it has been quite a while since the release of AoS 2.0 and the Malign Sorcery Endless spells. A few are seeing competitive play and some are only used as pretty models (I am looking at you beautiful bus useless Ravenaks Jaws…)

In this article, I will go through each Endless Spell from the Malign Sorcery box and analyse their usefulness from a competitive perspective. Is it really true that only a few have a place in high level matched play?

Low tier

This tier is for those endless spells that are just bad. This can be because their damage output is pitiful, their points cost is too high or that they just do not do enough to be considered in competitive play.

Ravenaks Gnashing Jaws

Costs 40 points

8 to cast it

Setup is wholly within 6″ of the wizard

It is a flying endless predatory spell

Moves 12″ (If in realm of beasts +1d6)

You get to move it on setup – giving it a 18″ range

Each unit it moved over or ended within 1″ takes d3 mortal wounds

Any units it moved over subtracts 1 from bravery until the end of the battle round

Ohh sweet Ravenaks Gnashing Jaws. Your model is so cool, but your damage output is just the lamest thing in the realms. The only upside I can see is that the model can block movement (and maybe even LoS), but for 40 points this is not really gonna see any play in a competitive environment.

Really hoping for a rules change for this dude in the future, but for now he is in the very low tier.

Purple Sun of Shyish

Will set you back 100(!) points

Casting value of 8

Setup is wholly within 6″ of the wizard

It is a flying endless predatory spell

Moves 9″ (12″ if you play in the realm of Shyish)

You get to move it on setup – giving it a 15″ range

Any units the sun moves over or ends within 1″ of is effected. Roll a d6 for each model in the units. For each 6 rolled, one model is slain. If it is a big tough dude with 6 or more wounds, it instead takes 2d6 mortal wounds (so it is not slain outright on the roll of a 6).

Besides killing stuff, you also subtract 1 from bravery for units within 6″

The model is cool and the damage can be good. But all discussion stops there because 100 points is just too damn crazy. If big monstrous infantry suddenly became the hot meta breaker (go go Ogors Battletome!) this might see some play, but until then the sun does not really shine that bright.

I wonder if this could be good if 60 man big units suddenly start being pretty standard (Gloomspite Gits and Skaven). Then again, how many models are you actually killing a turn for 100 points? Is 10 rats a turn good enough? And what happens when your enemy is suddenly moving this into your own troops?

It should also be said that one of the biggest downsides to the sun is how downright dreadful it is the assemble this miniature.

Suffocating Gravetide

60 points to buy a grave

6 to cast

Setup is wholly within 4″ of the wizard

It is a flying endless predatory spell

Moves 8″ (12 in the realm of Shyish)

You get to move it on setup – giving it a 12″ range

Units it moves over (but not units it ends within 1″ off) suffer d3 mortal wounds and takes -1 bravery until the end of the battle round

It can give cover from shooting attacks

This is a really big model that you have set up within 4″. It deals the same pitiful damage as Ravenaks. Hard to move over units to do any damage, and does not damage within 1″. On top of this, it is 60 points?

There is a reason you have not seen this on the tabletop. It is pretty clunky and quite bad. Low tier it is.

The Burning Head

40 points

7 to cast

Setup is wholly within 3″ of the wizard

It is a flying endless predatory spell

Moves 9″

You get to move it on setup – giving it a very short range of 12″

Moved over units or units within 1″ at the end of the move takes d3 mortal wounds (+1 mortal wounds in the realm of fire)

Reroll hit rolls of 1 on attacks for units wholly within 9″ of the Burning Head

First things first: you do not pick this to do damage to your opponent models, you pick it for the buff on your own units. Rerolls are powerful and in this case, you get to reroll 1's to hit in the combat phase and shooting phase. Not bad stuff!

The damage from it is pretty annoying and your opponent has the chance to pile in so they get the reroll hit buffs also.

At 40 points it is a bit on the expensive side, and the rules for the spell is just weird. I think this is actually okay in armies that do not have any options to buff their melee units – but those armies are just not the competitive anyway. Also, the wholly within 9″ can be a pain to manage when you pile in.

All in all, not a bad option, just not a very good option for the armies that are already good. It is just on the border of being mid tier.

Mid tier

This tier is for endless spells that are pretty good, but are beaten out by the competition, their points cost or other factors that make them just shy of being great. These are also spells that could be good in local metas, where the armies you play against can vary wildly and curveballs can wreck your opponents.

Aethervoid Pendulum

Costs 40 points

You need a 6 to cast

Setup is wholly within 6″ of the wizard

It is a flying endless predatory spell

Moves 8″ (you get to move it on setup – giving it a 14″ range)

The direction the Pendulum is set up in is the only direction it can move (only moves straight forward)

Any units the Pendulum moves over or ends within 1″ takes d6 mortal wounds

A lot of people thought this would be hot garbage, and it is not seeing that much play on a high level. But, the Pendulum is actually not bad. The reason it is not seeing as much play is probably that armies are very limited in how many endless spells it can efficiently use, and compared to other options the damage output is not good enough.

There are 4 things that make the pendulum great:

1. It can only move in one direction, making it very unlikely that it will come back on your own units.

2. It deals mortal wounds to units it passed over but also units within 1″ where it ends. Because the spell cannot move backwards, if you park this 1″ in front of an enemy unit you are getting the damage that turn, but you are also guaranteed to get the damage again next turn.

3. It can be used as a fire and forget thing. You just fling it off towards the enemy line, and at some point, they either need to dispell it or it is going to do some damage.

4. 40 points is a common sum to have left over. If you are light on mortal wound output, it is not a bad option.

On the flip side, d6 mortal wounds is not that high and all in all your points might be spent better elsewhere (units, other spells and so on).

Prismatic Palisade

30 points to buy the Palisade

5 to cast

Setup is wholly within 18″ of the wizard

No movement after setup

At the start of the turn roll a d6 for each unit within 6″. On +5 that unit takes -1 to hit on attack rolls until the end of the turn (shooting and combat). In the realm of Light it is on a +4 instead.

It blocks LoS if a line from the centre the base of the model, drawn to the centre of the base of the other model passes through the Palisade.

The Palisade is cheap and has a load of utility. It is actually surprising to not see this more in big tournament lists, but there are a few facts that keep this from being the bomb.

The plus side of the Palisade:

The Palisade is wide so can be used to screen units from charges

It blocks LoS from ranged attacks

While the debuff to hit is not something that you can count on, minus to hit can be very powerful (especially combined with other debuffs)

Even if you opponent just dispells at the start of their turn, they have still used one of their own spells to get rid of it

So if the palisade has that much upside, why do we not see it more?

While the Palisade can block LoS, LoS is not required to charge a unit. So even if you plop this down in front of a unit and hide it, the enemy still has a chance to dispell it in their hero phase and even if that fails, they still have the chance to charge around the Palisade.

The great armies charge and deal 1 million damage. If we see more great armies play more of a stationary objective based game plan, this might see more play.

While the hit debuff is good, it can also hit your own units. It can be a bit of a pain to manage pile in's to avoid the debuff

Big shooting armies are not really a part of the meta. If suddenly something comes along to change that, this might be more useful.

After it has been cast, your opponent needs to dispell that on its native to cast value. This means it is very easy to dispell on a 5 to cast.

Malevolent Maelstrom

20 points

7 to cast

Setup is wholly within 18″ of the wizard

It is a flying endless predatory spell

Moves 8″

Even though it is a predatory endless spell, you do not get to move it upon cast

Whenever a wizard casts a spell within 12, and that spell is not unbound, this spell will attempt to dispell it as a wizard would.

Whenever this model dispells a spell, it gains one energy point. If a unit gets wiped out within 6″ of this model it also gets an energy point. If you play in the realm of death it gains one energy point at the start of the battle round.

At the end of each battle round, roll a d6 and add the number of energy points. If the result is a seven or more the Malevolent Maelstrom explodes. Each unit within 3d6 takes 1d3 damage and the endless spell is removed.

So for the 20 points you can place a model 18 away that will try and unbind all spell attempts within 12″ – and you still get to try and unbind the spells as normal. If the opponent just dispells this spell, it has already done some damage (removed a spell on their side), and at cast value 7 it is no way a guaranteed that they get rid of it. They can of course just move their wizards away from it (or move the spell away) but you are guaranteed at least one turn where it disrupts part of their hero phase.

I think this spell is underutilised in competitive play and can be very good in armies that are not very magic heavy and just wants something for their wizard to do. My suggestion is to try to it out, as it can seriously catch your opponent off guard. The damage potential is just a tiny bonus, and the miniature is also pretty menacing.

Umbral Spellportal

60 points to cast

5 to cast

Setup the first portal wholly within 12″ of the wizard. Setup the second one wholly within 18″ of the first portal (if you play in the Shadow Realm the second portal can be set up anywhere on the board.

Does not move after setup

Once per hero phase, a wizard that successfully casts a spell within 1″ of a portal can instead measure range and line of sight from the other spell portal.

Once a phase when a predatory endless spell ends it move within “6 of a spell portal, remove it from the game and set it up again within 6” of any of the portal. The endless spell stops moving for that turn.

The portals went from being extremely broken to not really seeing much play anymore, all by limiting its effect to once pr. phase.

What you need to ask yourself is this: how much is it worth to extend the range of one of your spells? Is it worth 60 points and the casting of one endless spell? The answer is usually no, and this why you are not really seeing this on the board.

Now it can be okay for some weird mortal wound spam armies. You also have the potential of sending some big endless spell through it and dispelling the portals afterwards (to make sure your damage spell does not come back), but in reality, the endless spell just does not do enough damage.

In the end, this is too expensive and situational to see a heavy amount of competitive play.

Quicksilver Swords

20 points

6 to cast

Place the two models wholly within 10″ of the wizard

It is a flying endless predatory spell

Moves 8″

You get to move it on setup – giving it a range of 18″

After you finish moving the swords pick a unit within 6″ and roll 12d6 (if you play in the realm of metal roll 15 dice). Each 6 you roll is a mortal wound on the unit. If the unit has the chaos keyword on +5 will be mortal wounds.

This was predicted as kind of a weak spell, but the damage potential is actually okay. Couple this with a fairly long range since you only need to to be within 6″ of a unit to make it hit and this is suddenly not bad. The bonus against Chaos unit is actually okay, seeing as those armies are quite popular.

If you have 20 points leftover, this is an okay pick for some mortal wound output.

High tier

This tier is for endless spells that are just good. They need to be priced competitively, and do enough that they warrant inclusion in armies and that you want to use a spell cast on them.

Soulsnare Shackles

20 points

5 to cast

Setup the first shackle model wholly within 12″ of casting wizard. Setup the second shackle model wholly within 6″ of the first model and the third shackle also need to be wholly within 6″ of the first model (if you play in the realm of Death you can set up the second and third shackles within 9″ of the first).

Does not move after setup

At the start of the movement phase, roll a dice for each unit within 6″ of any shackle model. On a 3 or more halve that units movement for that phase. On a 6 the unit also suffers a d3 mortal wounds.

These bad boy actually sees a moderate amount of play, and you can see why. Movement is key in any Age of Sigmar and this has the potential to really screw over your opponent's movement plants.

Reasons why this good:

Can destroy your opponent's alpha strike plans and leave them to delay their attack for a crucial turn

If slow-moving objective horde armies are going to be a thing, you are gonna see this all over the place. Imagine a horde of Gloomspite Gitz rushing out with 120 grots and taking the objectives and throwing shackles your way. Have fun dealing with that…

20 points is just cheap for something that messes with movement

It is easy to get in range of multiple units because of the multiple shackles you get

Sadly, the 5 to cast is actually a downside because of how easy this is to dispell for your opponent and this might be one of the key factors why this is not seeing play in more armies.

Geminids of Uhl-Gysh

40 points

7 to cast

Place the two models wholly within 6″ of each other and wholly within 18″ of the caster. You must nominate which one is the light model and which one is the shadow model

It is a flying endless predatory spell

Moves 8″ and the two models must end within 6″ of each other (if not they are dispelled)

You get to move it on setup – giving it a range of 24″

Units the shadow model moves over takes d3 mortals and -1 on their attack characteristic until the end of the battle round (minimum 1 attack and if in the realm of shadow you reroll the mortal wound roll).

Units the light model moves over takes d3 mortals and -1 on hit rolls until the end of the battle round (if in the realm of light you reroll the mortal wound roll).

A unit can only be affected by one of the models (this is booth damage and the debuff effect).

Even after the nerf, this endless spell is just so damn good (before the nerf booth models could hit the same unit).

The damage is on par and even better than all of the other damaging spells, without it really showing up in the points cost

Booth debuffs are very good – and having the option of throwing either one on a unit is huge

If you get the shadow one over a unit and the light one over another unit it is very devastating

The debuff lasts until the end of the battle round, giving you a potential having this on the enemy for two rounds

The range is long (you can almost start the damage first turn)

Because the models need to move over a unit to have any effect, you can position them so they cannot hit your own units

One of the downsides is that your enemy can actually dispell it by moving the two models away from each other.

But all in all, there is a good reason why you see the geminids a lot. It is amazing!

Chronomatic Cogs

60 points

7 to cast

Setup wholly within 12″ of the wizard

Does not move after setup

In a players hero phase, they can pick a wizard within 9″ to use the cogs. The effect lasts until their next hero phase or when another wizard manipulates the model. There are two effects and you can pick one.

Speed up time: all units on the board gets +2 move and +2 on charge rolls.

Slow down time: the wizard that used the cogs can cast one more spell each hero phase (also counts the phase they cast the spell). In addition, reroll saves for the wizard.

Despite the high price tag, this is seeing a modest amount of play.

It enables some armies to do an alpha strike that otherwise could not

It gives very slow moving armies the possibility of getting into combat way quicker

The reroll saves can be good on wizards that actually has a good save

Casting more spells is always good

Be careful to note that the movement and charge buff will also go to your opponent. I have seen a few games where casting this spell actually ended up helping the opponent more than the casting player.

Overall, this is just a solid buff spell.

Related questions

Where is the Balewind Vortex?

The vortex was released a long time before the Malign Sorcery, so is not really a part of the expansion. This is why I decided to not include it here. The spell is okay for magic heavy armies because casting more spells is always good.

Is the Malign Sorcery spells crucial in order to play competitively?

The endless spells will give you more options and more options are always good if you want to get an edge on your opponent. That said, we do not see any of the spells included over and over again in all armies. What that says to me is that they can be good, but none are so broken that they are mandatory.

Do you disagree with me? Leave a comment below!

What is good and what is not good can sometimes differ depending on your own experience, the army you play or play against and various other factors. If you want to voice your own opinion, feel free to leave a comment below

About me

My name is Peter, I play Age of Sigmar (everything destruction), paint a lot and read a lot. When I am done doing all that, I try to write helpful articles about the things I learn and post them here. More about me here.

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